its early on thanksgiving morning, i’m watching the sun rise out the office window. i’m grateful to see the sky, we’ve been under cold wed rainy skies for days. i forget how much i enjoy seeing the sky, the contrast between the clouds, the expanse of blue, and the sun being sunny. i’m still wearing my pink glasses to make working on a screen less damaging to my neurology. sun rises and sun sets are always extra glorious through rose colored glasses!

i am grateful for the beauty of our universe. thank you for being so dang pretty universe!

access to clean local food

i’ve been sourcing local food for my family for many years now. in that time we’ve come to know quite a few of the men and women that grow our food and harvest the animals we eat. i’ve come to learn how they toil, long hours, for not that much financial reward.

this makes me feel a bit throwupy.

we eat likes kings because of these men and women. because of them, we have access to good, clean, non-toxic food. it is high time these great souls were more highly valued in our community. they are our nourishers, our healers. but for their labor of love, we eaters would have no choice but to eat the frankenfood the big ag and big food companies produce. blech!

they protect the soil, coax vegetable nourishment out of crazy weather, provide animals a clean diet, raise and butcher animals humanely. they do so with love, because they are called to serve this way, because they could hardly imagine doing anything else. they remain connected to the earth, to the land, they understand how the elements give and take. farmers remind us eaters that there is no food fairy. food does not magically appear at the grocery store.

while they don’t get much financial reward, they do get the reward of being the best stewards of the earth, and feeding their community with grace and love.

in my opinion these men and women, their families are royalty. farmer kings and farmer queens, farmer princes, princesses.

i sure hope they continue to have enough paying customers who understand the real value of the food they produce to keep them in business. even when my budget is tight, i still find the dollars it takes to feed us real food.

small farms have oodles of obstacles to staying in business. somehow, over the ages, some farms do manage to stay solvent, they keep practicing their genius, growing our food, mentoring the next generation of farmers. thank you farmers.

how many farmers do you have?

have you had the pleasure yet, of getting to know the men and women who nourish your family? do you do your part to keeping these businesses alive? do you thank these souls for their gifts to your family?

cathy, from sullivan’s happy heart farms, grower of the veg we ferment, and the eggs we breakfast on.

find a farmer’s market

we are now regulars at the farm stand near the heights. when i first started shopping at farmer’s markets it felt like an inconvenience. the “store” was only open a few hours on saturday morning. saturdays are always busy, there are big breakfasts to make, sports games to attend, slow relaxed mornings to accomplish, pushing off getting dressed as long as possible. it was not my favorite time of day to go run errands.

4 years later, getting to the market is a whole different experience. i know all the vendors. their families. i know the other regulars. i want to see them every week. i want to lollygag, taking my time to make my weekly selections. i like knowing that anything my kids see there is free of chemicals. i can keep saying yes to anything their tastebuds desire, as long as my pocket book allows. i miss the market now when saturday mornings schedules don’t allow for the cross town trip.

most of all i like that my kids see that humans are behind food production. they know that farmers create the food we eat. they see that there is an alternative to the frankenfood they see all the time at big box grocery stores, school, at kid events.

i grew up knowing the difference between real food and packaged food, so it was a no brainer when it came time to feed my little ones, that i would choose real food. i sleep better at night knowing that when my boys turn into adults and fathers it is very likely they will make the same decision to continue feeding themselves and their loved ones real food.

farmer’s marketing is a very good habit to start. if you aren’t familiar with the markets in your area, you can find a grower, or market with the local harvest search tool.

i know we are going into a season where in many regions markets are closing for winter. i’m just planing the seed for you all to start your habit when spring veggies are available.

happy thanksgiving everyone! if you have a few moments, click through and leave a comment. write your words of gratitude to the farmers in your life.

matt the woodcarver, spreading his passion for his craft to the next generation. i thank you.

p.s. i like to do most of my christmas shopping at the market too. because knowing the human that made the gift you give is pretty amazing. and farmer’s market traffic is 42938477% better than mall traffic. in case you were wondering.

Coming Soon!

We’re still working out the kinks!

This is phase 1 of the redesign. I know it's not perfect, I'm working on ironing out all the wrinkles. If you find a broken link, or unreadable page, or the site is clunky/not intuitive, leave a comment and make a suggestion. I'll fix problems soon! Thanks for making this a better blog!